Spain to make filming police a crime

Following massive protests in Spain over the last couple of months as demonstrators revolt in response to draconian austerity measures imposed by the crumbling European Union, Spain has now moved to make filming police a crime.

“The director general of police, Ignacio CosidÃ³, announced on Thursday that the authorities are studying the possibility that the next update to the Public Security Law could include an article prohibiting the recording, processing or circulation on the internet of police officers performing their duties, if doing so would endanger them or the operation in which they were engaged,” reports El Pais.

The law would also make it illegal for protesters to cover their faces, undoubtedly an effort to make them easier to identify. Cops who disguise their identity in full riot gear and helmets would not be held to the same standard.

The new law arrives in the immediate aftermath of protests across the country last month which highlighted numerous instances of Spanish police beating demonstrators with batons and using smoke bullets in confined spaces.

Presumably, the government is not seeking to limit such brutality, but rather the ability for such actions to be recorded and later seen by millions on television news and You Tube.

Although police in other countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States routinely attempt to intimidate onlookers and protesters by claiming that filming cops is against the law, every time the issue goes to court it is vehemently underscored that this is not the case.

Judges for Democracy warned that the new Spanish law was of great concern because it is “extremely ambiguous and in no instance should be used to prevent the circulation of excesses on the part of police.”

The new law will also re-define the definition of a “violent attack,” meaning protesters could now be targeted for “any aggression or threats of violence against security forces,” meaning mere threats could carry the same punishment as actual violence.

“These are the same riot cops who typically wear gas masks, and full riot attire and shields precisely to preserve their identity. But facts matter little when the liquidity tide is going out and all the Ponzi schemes are exposed to have been swimming naked. For now, Spain will be happy to little by little strip its citizens first of their rights to free expression, then all other rights, as it slowly but surely sells the country into Troika slavery,” reports Zero Hedge.